Writing stories... And daydreaming

I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'm well aware that a revelation like this is as surface-level as can be, but... Writing stories is really no different from daydreaming, isn't it? 
I've always struggled with long-form writing, prose especially. I can write shorter stuff, but laying out a complex narrative is troubling. And yet, I have multiple fantasies, "lies" about my own life stored away at the back of my mind at all times. Something I can rely on when real life isn't pleasant to think about. I often just make things up as I go. You know, just regular, pure, honest daydreaming. And yet for some reason, I'm only now realizing that stories are just that, they're... Hmm... Elaborate "hallucinations"? It makes perfect sense once you say it out loud, and it's baffling to me how I've never realized it before this moment, but that's all it is. 

I feel so stupid now, but I feel like realizing that is important. For years, I felt like to write stories you have to "jump through hoops" and do the most unexplainable mental labour, but it's literally inherit to the mind we're born with.